Optimal vibration estimation of a non-linear flexible beam mounted on a rotating compliant hub

To eliminate the need for sensor placement on rotating flexible beams such as turbine blades, helicopter rotors and like applications, a new approach has been developed based on the linear quadratic estimator (LQE) technique for estimating the vibration of any point on the span of a rotating flexible beam mounted on a compliant hub (plant) in the presence of process and measurements noise. A non-linear model of the plant is utilized in this study to mimic the actual plant behavior. The corresponding plant dynamics of the LQE are in the form of a reduced order linear model constructed from the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of a finite element dynamic model of the plant formulated in the state space. A virtual hub deflection (that mimics the actual measurement of the vertical hub deflection needed by the estimation process) is generated by the non-linear model of the plant. The LQE reconstructs the states of the plant, including transverse deflection of the beam at any point, from the measurements of the vertical deflection of the hub, assuming that it is the most accessible state for measurement. Estimated beam tip deflection obtained by the proposed technique is then compared to the tip deflection generated by the nonlinear model and the results show good agreement.